Shaper of Beacon - Volume 2
by NemesisVengence
Summary: The next semester has come around, and for the leader of Team JADE, the occurrences around him just keep getting stranger. When tragedy befalls a friend, he decides to find out why, now directly opposite the ones he'd been made to help prior.
1. Chapter 1 - Interludes and Exercises

_Standing in an empty, desolate field, completely slate grey and rocky, weak wind breezing across my travel-worn cloak, I stared across at the only other thing in the field, dimly illuminated in the weak moonlight. There was the form of a person standing across from me, though their face was invisible behind the veil of darkness separating the two of us._

 _This standoff continued for a minute or two, neither of us moving, nor saying anything, the only noise being the wind that continued to blow, before we both moved as one. Bounding back, I stomped down on the ground, the earth beneath my feet parting and a sword emitting a strange black lightning jumping to my hand._

 _As the figure across from me advanced, I brought the weapon up to meet them, blocking a burning red blade before my sword exploded in a blast of black lightning and a shock-wave sending the two of us in opposite directions, skidding across the earth before standing back up, only to be met by that same burning sword that had emerged unscathed from the blast._

" _A shame you weren't good enough. You might have saved them otherwise."_

 _These were the only words I heard from the figure, the voice somewhat distorted, so I couldn't make it out, before the blade was brought down to end my life._

* * *

Rising from my bed with a start, I looked around, in an attempt to gain my bearings on the situation.

Just the room in Beacon.

Just another day for the leader of team JADE.

"You all right, Jett?" Azure's voice asked, sounding rather chipper.

I didn't have to ask what time it was. The surest sign I overslept is Azure being out of her zombie state already. "I'm fine, thanks, Azure. Just…" I started, thinking about the circumstances a moment "…a weird dream."

"Oh?" she asked, brushing her deep blue hair over her ear. "You've been having those quite a bit lately. Any idea why?"

Shaking my head, I answered "No, not at all."

It _was_ true though. I had been having more dreams like that since the semester started, but even more so since the incident at the docks that marked the end of 'The Phantom'. I couldn't figure out why: shouldn't my causes for stress be _less_ now?

"Maybe you feel like something bad's about to happen." Diamond commented, looking as if he'd just finished getting changed. I could hear the shower running, so I needn't ask where Eunry ended up.

 _Getting up later than Eunry. I must be having an off time._

"I don't blame you. Chroma and Roman got away, _and_ there's someone higher-up than him running the show. Sounds like you got out of it just in time, though." Diamond observed, before spotting the ticket on my desk. "You bringing that to him today?" he asked me.

Nodding in response, I told him "Tukson didn't want to get this himself, he doesn't want them to know he's leaving the kingdom until he's already gone. I agree. It'll end badly for him if he stays here, now that he's no longer with them."

True to my word, I hadn't kept any secrets from the team since the incident, even the fact that I was helping Tukson escape the area. I really hope he _does_ find that beach in Vacuo he kept talking about.

"Apparently he still has a couple days before he's ready to leave, but I want to get these to him early, so I'll be going into Vale again today. Are you guys still up for whatever it is Eunry has in mind?" I asked the two of them, before they nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. Whatever it is, she seems really hyped about it. I don't know what she's got in mind, though. She's been playing it pretty close to the chest." Diamond commented, before nodding "So yeah, if she's that excited, I'm in."

Azure nodded before shaking a bit, holding her hands in front of her chest "I don't know what it is, but doesn't that make it more exciting!? I can't wait to find out!"

"Yeah." I agreed, before finally getting out of bed. "Once I come back from Vale, I'm good. Just tell me where she has you go before you go there, all right? Just in case she brings you there while I'm on my way back."

"Agreed." Diamond nodded, before Eunry emerged from the shower, still adjusting her clothes, long, light-red hair wrapped in a towel. I could swear Diamond turned the same colour as her hair for a moment, before I went over to the bathroom, with my clothes for the day, taking a shower and getting changed.

There was still a day or two before the new semester started, and apparently there was something awesome to do that Eunry had wanted to do with her team for some time now.

 _Seems like it should be interesting. I guess we'll find out later._

Shortly after getting dressed, I left the grounds and made my way to Vale for the morning, moving quickly to get to Tukson's store. Entering the store in a natural gait, or rather, a forced natural gait, pretending to browse the shelves in the store, before I heard a voice from behind me.

"Welcome to Tukson's- oh, it's you. How are you doing, kid?" the faunus then asked me, seeming relieved that it was just me that entered his store.

We were lucky: the store was currently empty at this hour, so there was no need to pretend I was browsing for books, or speaking in code or anything of the sort.

"I'm fine. _You_ look like you've been better, though." I responded, stepping over to him, noting the bags under his eyes.

 _Looks like I'm not the only one who's had trouble sleeping._

"Me? No, just having to make a couple of arrangements. Kept me up a bit last night. So what did you want?" He asked earnestly, wondering what brought me out here in the middle of the day. "It's dangerous to come here in the daytime, they could be following you while you're in Vale. Maybe even while you're in Beacon."

Shaking my head, I responded first to his statement "Not at all. The only one who's probably having me followed is Ozpin, and I very much doubt we have anything to worry about there. On the subject of your question though." I started, before drawing the ticket out of my pocket. "Happy Birthday."

As he took the ticket, he raised an eyebrow "It's not my birthday, kid. But thanks." Nodding with a smile, he gestured to the shelves "Feel free to look around. I don't like the feeling of owing people, so have a couple on the house. You told me you have a photographic memory, but consider them souvenirs once you've got them memorized."

Taking him up on his offer, I walked around the store. Scanning the shelves now, I drew out a large volume on engineering, and another large one on computer programming. However, I started to put them back when I saw the price on them.

"Hey, take 'em." He responded, when he saw me putting them back. "I've had those ones for ages. No one with the interest in the subjects who are willing to shell out that kind of Lien for them. Besides, you and I both know this place probably won't survive me leaving."

"Well, it is _Tukson's_ Book Trade. Without Tukson, there's not much store, now is there?" I asked him with a shrug, unable to move my arms much owing to the two large volumes currently in my arms. "I'm going to miss our little chats once you're gone, though, I think. Probing the mysteries of the world with someone so well-read was quite a treat for me."

"Yeah, I get it. Now get going, before someone outside starts getting suspicious. But come over here and at least _act like_ you're paying for them." He instructed, rubbing the back of his head. Clearly, he wasn't the best at good-byes.

After going through the routine of paying for the books, I started toward the door. Unable to wave at the moment, I simply bowed politely on my way out of the store. "Good day." I told him, before I left.

The ticket didn't have him leaving for at least another day, but I got the feeling this would be the last time I ever saw the guy.

 _All right, that's that. Now, where does Eunry want us to go?_

Finding a place I could sit down a moment, I rested my scroll down atop my volumes, as a young woman with bisected hair colours, brown on her left and pink on her right, walked past where I was sitting, almost brushing me in the face with the end of the umbrella she was carrying. On her way by, I could swear she looked down at me, with what a difficult-to-read expression in her pink-and-brown eyes.

 _Now that's a style you don't forget quickly._

Looking back down at my scroll now, I saw the last message from my team had Eunry bringing them to the landing pad outside of Beacon, where we would apparently be doing whatever it was we were doing. From Diamond's last message, it seemed she wasn't going to tell them what it was until I showed up.

Shrugging a bit, I got up, now making my way back to Beacon, and arriving at the platform carrying the heavy books I had gotten in town. "Just give me a minute, I'd like to put these back in the room." I told them, starting away from the platform.

"Oh, no! We've been waiting long enough! I want to at least hear what we're doing!" Diamond protested. I could hear how bored he was getting in how worked up he got by the prospect of another delay.

"All right then. Eunry, what have you got for us?" I then asked her curiously. I'll admit, I'd wanted to know what she had in mind as well.

"Okay then." She started, looking us over as if she were about to make a speech "Team, I asked my brother to do us a favour today, so…" I could practically hear the drumroll before she announced, with a level of energy uncommon from her "…we'll be practicing our landing strategy!"

"All that hype for landing practice?" Diamond asked, sounding annoyed it was something so mundane, before remembering why he agreed to do this "But, if you're so excited, must be a good practice!"

"Oh, you're going to regret being so snarky once I show you just how we're practicing." Eunry declared "Because we're going to be practicing high-altitude landing strategies!" pointing up at the sky energetically.

"High… altitude?" Diamond asked nervously.

"Yep! Once my brother gets here with his ship, we're going to jump out over Beacon once the airship is at maximum altitude, and then we're going to land from all the way up there!" Eunry declared, much to Diamond's dismay.

"Yo-you know I don't like extreme heights, right?" Diamond started, before 'correcting' himself. "I mean, Azure doesn't like extreme heights, right?"

"Nope. I'm fine with it!" Azure then informed him, looking up at the sky. "So, are we bringing parachutes, or are we gonna go all-in?" she asked, excited.

As much as Diamond hated the idea, it seemed Azure was thrilled with it.

"Oh, we have parachutes ready." Eunry informed her, before proposing "But we'll make it more interesting. Last one to pull their chute wins. Also, the losers have to do whatever the winner wants to do until the semester starts! How about that?"

Looking overjoyed at the suggestion, Azure responded "You're on! But you cream puffs better be ready for Azure's max-tier workout regimen once I win! It'll make the one Jett makes us do look like a light jog in comparison!"

I know she's just being competitive, but I'm pretty sure my regime was a pretty good one for keeping us all in fighting shape. At least, they hadn't complained so far.

"Well, if that's the case, you've severely underestimated me, Eunry!" Diamond declared. "You do remember my semblance, right?"

"True." I responded. "But if you use yours like that, then there'll be a crater wherever you happen to land. You may even bury yourself at that point."

"What happens if we all land without deploying them?" I then asked Eunry curiously.

"Then first one on the ground without deploying wins. But I guarantee at least one of us is going to pull up at the last moment!" Eunry informed the group of us.

Now taking my leave a moment to put my books back in the room, I headed back out quickly and made my way back to the pad.

Just as I arrived, an airship landed at the pad we were waiting at, a tall man whose light red hair was constrained by a white cap, only stray strands giving away the colour. "Hey, little sis! Looks like you and your friends are ready! Good. You'll have to give me a few minutes though. Have to load up first."

As the rest of us looked a little confused, Eunry commented "Did you really think that he was just getting us up there for no reason? He's dropping us off on a cargo run. Either way, we'll get to do our jump."

Nodding along, our team now made our way onto the airship, and waited for her brother to come back, which he did before long, sitting back down in the cockpit as his cargo was being loaded. Now turning back to us after punching in a few things in the front, he asked us "So, this is my sister's team?" before teasing, "Can't say I'm surprised. You misfits have been together since the early days." Then finally looking over at me, "Though you, I'm not familiar with. That means you're the team leader, Jett, right? Eun-eun's mentioned you before."

He then offered me a smile "The name's Cinnabar. Nice to meet you!"

Nodding in return with a smile "Like you said, I'm Jett. Nice to meet you, Cinnabar."

"Not a problem. Just make sure Diamond keeps his hands to himself around my sister!" Cinnabar then commented, giving him a knowing look.

"Shut up, _Cinnamon_." Eunry commented, thoroughly embarrassed.

Had I been so busy before I hadn't even noticed something happen? Or was it just there the whole time, and I never noticed it before.

"Either way, kiddos." Upon hearing the cargo bay door close, he grabbed the address system "This is your captain speaking, we'll be making our ascent to our cruising altitude just above cloud level. Once the seatbelt signs are off you are free to get the hell off my ship and back to your school. Thank you for listening, and thank your for flying Cinnabar air line today."

"You're not at all concerned that we're skydiving from your craft?" I found myself asking just before we took off.

"Nah, I've done crazier stuff than this in my time! You're gonna love the feeling of pelting through the sky just before your backpack buddy makes the descent a lot more pleasant." He informed us as he started the engines.

The airship take-off was smooth, as we got ourselves up to our drop altitude by circling above Beacon.

"Okay, kids. You guys'll need those masks and goggles I left back there. Trust me, if you fall through a cloud, you'll appreciate having those on, and the air's a bit thin up here. You'll need to breathe to focus." Cinnabar instructed, before I started to hand them out to the team, then put my goggles on in a ready position.

Finally, not far above the clouds, the lit signs shut off, and a voice over the PA then declared "All right, team, this is where you get off!"

Stepping along the craft until we reached the cargo area, where the ramp was partially lowered to allow us to exit, I took in a deep breath and gulped nervously, the parachutes we had secured to ourselves still not giving me much in terms of reassurance about the situation. At least the mask was letting me breathe well even in the thin air up here. "Okay, does everyone know how to use one of these!?" Azure shouted above the whipping winds.

"I don't!" I responded immediately.

"Ok then! Jett, you've just gotta-!" now giving me instructions on how to open the parachute. Though, for all I could hear from her, she was giving me instructions to start a lawn mower. Either way, I think I got enough of the gist to understand the basic idea.

But that's not enough to bet your life on!

However, before I could ask any more questions, Azure stepped right up to the edge and called "See you scrubs on the ground!" before diving gracefully into the open sky behind the craft.

"Hey, we can't let her beat us down!" Eunry shouted over the wind, before diving off the craft.

"Here's hoping I liiiiiive!" Diamond shouted, seeming to tumble off the craft after forcing himself to jump.

The things some guys do…

Shaking my head a bit, I went over to the edge, and took another breath before lobbing myself off of the top of the world.

 _After all, I'd never hear the end of it if I had to get a ride back from her brother._

It wasn't long into the jump before I pelted through a cloud, my entire body soaked now as I pelted through the air after getting through the cloud, the mid-afternoon sky from this altitude simply breathtaking as we descended from the craft's travel height.

Once I was past the cloud, I could spot three other dots rapidly descending, each looking as if they were doing something to accelerate their fall.

 _So that's how they want to play it? Well, we'll just see about that._

Reaching out into the air around me with my semblance, I began to collect the air in front of me pushing it out behind me, adjusting the flow to substantially drop the pressure in front of me, allowing me to fall even more quickly than I had been at the start.

As I fell, I saw Diamond was glowing white, clearly triggering his semblance to lock himself into position and protect himself from impact in the air. Or perhaps he was just panicking as he fell through the air, I couldn't be sure at the moment, but, either way, it was obvious he was the one that she meant when she said 'someone' was going to pull up.

To be fair, I was tempted to pull up already myself, but I knew Azure wouldn't forgive me if I didn't give her a competition for the right to lord over the other members of the team until we started up classes again.

I must admit, the fall was actually nicer than the one in the woods, as the thinned-air around me lacked the same effect since I had the mask they gave me.

Shooting downward like a bullet, I streaked past Eunry, who seemed to be doing something to make herself fall faster, though I couldn't quite figure out what it was, before I drew even to Azure.

However, now that the Beacon grounds started to draw closer in our sight, the issue of how to actually land took precedence over our little competition. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen how Azure actually landed out in the woods, but now noticing she seemed to be slowing down, pushing against an upward water current on her way down: she was conjuring water to slow her descent!

Looking down at the ground, I knew I had to do something, or risk being killed by the impact, or trying to correct course too forcefully closer to the ground. I could almost hear her in my head saying _'just pull up. Let me win'_.

Not going to happen.

Using some of the collected air I pulled in accelerating my fall, I pushed it in front of me, decreasing my momentum and slowing my fall a bit, the two of us now engaged in a strange sort of falling race, each of us trying to only slow our fall enough to avoid what would await us on the ground without letting the other gain a lead on us as we continued to fall.

However, the two of us hurtling down, neck-in-neck, didn't even notice that a third figure was approaching our race: Eunry had caught up! Strange sorts of bubbles were appearing around Eunry as she slowed her own descent, the three of us knowing that none of us would win if one of us reached terminal velocity in an attempt to get ahead of the others.

The only question was: how the hell was she actually doing that?

As the three of us got closer and closer to the ground, wind whipping past all three of us as our descent neared its end, Azure managed to flash Eunry a nod mid-air, before I felt a form press itself against my back, arms locking around my front before the two of us were hauled skyward, Eunry's parachute opening as the two of us went down, water bursts continuing until Azure landed.

As we floated down to the ground, Azure grinned as she removed her mask "Well, guess you lose, Jett! We're doing my regimen until the semester starts! Ha!"

"Sorry, Jett." Eunry told me as we landed. "But a deal's a deal." She commented, looking across at Azure, who nodded along with her.

"Yep! I'll give you that thing before we get started! He'll love it!" Azure assured her.

"You're doing this to impress Diamond!?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes." Eunry told me, now separating me from her before she removed her parachute bag. "He hasn't taken the initiative at all, so I'm trying to push things along." She admitted, looking up as we saw a parachute still floating down in the distance.

"Guess he _did_ pull it early." I muttered. At least it gave us a moment to talk about this.

"I knew he would. He hates high places. I'm actually kind of impressed he was willing to go through with it." Eunry admitted, looking up at him with a smile.

"I thought he was going to meteor into the ground. That's why I warned him." I commented.

"True, that was possible, but unlikely. He would have gotten scared by the end I think." Azure commented, now calming down a moment, at least until Diamond landed.

"You guys seem to be having fun." A voice spoke from behind us, before I turned on my heel, and saw team RWBY standing behind us, Yang grinning across at our team.

"Did you guys just fall from the sky?" Blake asked, seeming a little amused even when trying to remain serious.

"Yeah!" Azure shouted. "It was Eunry's idea! It. Was. Awesome!" Running over to them and fist-bumping Yang.

"They take the bet?" Yang asked quietly.

"Yep!" Azure announced, clearly excited. "…and of course I won!" she declared with a grin.

"Shouldn't have doooone thaaat~" Ruby practically sang, looking right at me.

"Why not? Ruby!? What does she have in mind?" I asked her, now quite nervous as to what exactly it was I accepted.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about the exercise. Just worry about someone streaming it." Weiss commented, unable to suppress a smirk that said she was thinking about doing just that.

"Why…? Why would it even be worth streaming!?" I asked, scared of what I already knew about Azure's imagination.

"You'll see~" Azure sang happily, practically bouncing around the area.

"You look happy~" Nora's voice added to the conversation. "Did you win?"

"Yep!" Azure responded. Clearly, she had some kind of meeting or something to talk about this with the other teams we knew. "Please, nobody stream it, though! It'll be bad enough what's gonna happen to them! Did you wanna join us, Nora? Show these wimps how its done?"

"Depends, you got an extra one?" she then asked Azure with a smirk, apparently knowing something I didn't.

"I was kind of expecting an extra or two, so I have a couple extras. What about you, Pyrrha? You want to join us?" Azure offered, now seeing Pyrrha blush at whatever she was implying.

"What the hell is she talking about, Eunry?" I asked her quietly, outright scared of what she had in mind that she was willing to cheat in a friendly competition to get it.

"Hang on. She'll tell you once Diamond lands." Eunry responded, pointing up to the parachute that grew closer with each passing minute, though it would still take a bit before he landed.

"O-oh, I mean, I wouldn't want to bother you. It should be a team activity." Pyrrha responded, trying not to impose on whatever exercise this was. True enough, though. She was apparently already a highly-respected fighter even _before_ coming here, so her regimen would probably put mine to shame as well.

"Great idea, Pyrrha!" Nora declared with a grin. "You're joining us too, guys!" pointing now at Jaune and Ren, who started to look nervous.

"Hey, Nora, we didn't even participate in their challenge, so we didn't have a choice in this!" Ren retorted, backing away slightly.

"Oh, come on, silly! It'll be fun! It's a team-bonding experience!" Nora declared, rushing over to him and locking arms. "It's settled, we're doing it!"

Ren looked nervous as well now, but eventually gave a resigned sigh "Fine, I guess. But you owe me for this." Ren then told her, clearly knowing there was no arguing with her when she got like this.

Jaune, however, held his hands out "H-hey! I don't think we should." He started.

The persuasion, this time, came from Pyrrha "I don't know, Jaune. The rest of the team seems to be on board with it. You never know, it could be fun."

 _Ah, Pyrrha, ever the optimist. Though I'm still not sure what she's so optimistic about…_

The answer, however, came when Diamond finally landed, barely managing to stand up as he flung off the parachute bag. "Never. Make. Me. Do. That. Again!" he declared, still wearing the mask and goggles.

Eunry, rushing over to him, now started rubbing his shoulders a bit, looking as if she were trying to calm him down now "It's okay. That was a one-time challenge. I'm actually really impressed you were able to." She re-assured him, as he slowly came back to full cohesion.

"All right! Now that all of us have landed, it's time to tell you what you've won!" Azure declared triumphantly. "You will be introduced to Azure's max-tier workout regimen! If any of you noodles have a problem with this, then blame JADE's leader for not winning our contest!"

"I didn't lose! You bribed Eunry into helping you cheat!" I protested angrily. I didn't mind losing that much, but the fact that she was pretending she won it legit was what set me off.

"Excuses~" Azure sang, before stepping over to the group of us. "First thing's first! My regimen requires everyone taking part to wear my special uniform! That means everyone! Myself included!" she then told us, pointing to a box we only now noticed that team RWBY had brought along. "Ruby, give us the uniforms! JNPR included!"

Ruby, now opening the box, brought out what looked like one piece swimsuits with short legging sections "Are you sure they'll fit?" she asked curiously.

"Of course!" Azure informed her. "They're one-size fits all!" now giving Eunry hers, which looked like it was a different colour from the rest of them. "There's your prize!" she told her, before Ruby handed Pyrrha and Nora theirs as well, before now bringing out what looked like a male version of the swimsuits now, giving one to me, then the others to Diamond, Jaune and Ren.

"Wait, what is this?" I asked, confused as I looked it over.

"Those are the training uniforms! Now! Meetup is back here in half an hour! Anyone who doesn't come out for training will be found!" She told us, as it seemed clear Nora was in on it when she stood up front with her.

As I looked over to Ren and Jaune, I tried to think of something reassuring to say, but nothing was coming to mind at the moment. As if the training wasn't enough, we had to humiliate ourselves during the process!?

"Let's get going, cream puffs!" Nora shouted at us, prompting us to run across the courtyard in order to get to the locker room and change into these rather strange getups.

As we were putting them on, I asked Jaune and Ren "Did you guys know about this?" as it seemed their teammates clearly knew, though it was uncertain whether they did or not.

"About you guys? Yes. About us as well? No." Ren stated bluntly while Jaune seemed to be struggling to come up with an answer.

Barely managing to put on the tight-fitting getup, I shook my head "Damned Azure and her crazy plans. I just hope the exercises aren't that bad."

"Wait, you would have just let us do this if you weren't involved?" Diamond asked, surprised when he put two and two together.

"Well, yeah…" Jaune responded this time. "I mean, that's your team's business." He considered aloud.

"I suppose you're right." I eventually ceded with a nod. "Come on, let's go, before Azure comes to find us."

Now, with the other guys from our teams, I went back out to the entrance, the four of us drawing stares from people as we went down the hallway. The worst part definitely being when Ozpin saw us going down the hall like that "How much did you lose by?" he asked, seeming to already get what was going on.

"Enough." I responded to him on our way by, getting back outside and back out to the front.

However, as the girls started to come out from the building, now dressed in their suits, I was almost outright stunned by what I was looking at: Azure, Eunry, Pyrrha and Nora each wearing skin-tight suits similar to the ones we were wearing.

Though, I was certain we were getting the better view of the two, as our suits just looked kind of weird, essentially out here in our underwear, though, fortunately, I was able to wear a cup under mine just in case something stupid happened, like getting kneed in the crotch or something. Their suits, on the other hand, clung tightly to their skin in a way I'd never seen before, showing off their well-trained, athletic forms to anyone with the nerve to look them over.

 _The way their chests are bouncing around like that is definitely a plus, too._

"Are you all right, Jett?" Pyrrha asked, looking concerned at the expression on my face. I could feel the heat rising in my face at this question, determinedly looking her in the eye as I responded.

"Of course, Pyrrha! Nothing unusual at all about this scenario!" I responded, though, from the laugh it elicited from Azure, her choice of training uniform was having the effect they were looking for.

"Never seen anything like this back home, have you Jett?" Azure asked with a large smirk on her face, bringing a hand up before she adjusted her suit, intentionally shifting the chest of her suit as the stretching material moved back into place with a smack.

"Not really." I responded, trying not to stare. "This kind of thing would be revealing for _underwear_ at home, much less something for training in public!"

Suddenly, Eunry's decision to help Azure get this plan into motion made sense, if she were trying to impress Diamond, especially with her suit being the same colour as her hair, as opposed to the navy-blue colour the rest of ours' were.

"All right! Since the noodles showed up, we don't have to go hunting for you!" Azure declared happily, as their group now looked us over just as we had them. "But, don't expect your troubles are over just because you're wearing those suits!" Azure then declared. "Because now, it's time for the fun part! Three laps around campus, now!" she shouted, everyone seeming to fall in line the shrill sound of a whistle could be clearly heard, most likely, all the way across campus.

"Wait, Azure, isn't this whole thing excessive?" I asked, confused.

"What was that? Did I hear 'please make us do FOUR laps, Azure'!? Fine! Four laps!" she retorted aggressively.

"Jett! Shut up!" Diamond responded, starting to run, with Azure and Nora running at the back of the group, ready to berate us in order to keep us running.

As we ran, I tried to keep my focus on how far we had gotten with our run, and not on the fact that Pyrrha was running right in front of me, offering quite a view if I had the nerve to look down. I could tell Eunry, running next to her, was trying to show off to Diamond, but that was definitely not the case here, judging by the fact that her gaze was locked on Jaune, no matter the angle between the two. This helped in keeping my gaze up, since this clearly wasn't intended, so there was no need to think about it that hard.

Each time we completed a lap, we passed by Team RWBY, who were currently lounging by the courtyard, giving cheers as we all ran past that I was trying to figure out whether or not were legitimate, Yang loudly telling us from her lawn chair how many laps we had left each time we passed.

 _Okay, so Pyrrha did this for Jaune. Eunry did this for Diamond. That much is obvious. Did Nora do this for Ren? I've seen them together all the time. The only thing that's not clear is why Azure's doing this. I mean, maybe she wants to help them matchmake while trolling me at the same time… she seems to take joy in annoying me._

"Come on! Less daydreaming, more running Stremm!" Azure's voice shouted from behind me, keeping my mind on the task at hand.

The eight of us, finally finishing all four laps around Beacon, stopped just before team RWBY, the guys, myself included, all collapsed once we got there, the other four all seeming intact, though I knew at least Eunry must have felt it, from the fact she was almost doubled over, but she forced herself to remain standing.

"That… sucked…" I practically wheezed after running so far.

"Oh, come on, Jett! You guys have gone further than that before!" Ruby called encouragingly.

"You're welcome to join us if you like!" I offered to the team, Ruby looking somewhat flustered at this for some reason.

"Nah, we're perfectly fine right here! Our training time is later!" Yang declared, raising a glass of lemonade currently on one of the chair's armrests. "Besides, Azure only brought suits for your teams! As disappointed as I'm sure you are that you won't be seeing me in one!" she then teased with a smirk, re-adjusting her sunglasses as she exaggeratedly lounged about.

"No chatter, Jett!" Nora berated. "Get up, boys! We've got the next exercise to start! This is a partner exercise, so feel free to buddy up!"

Azure now smirked as the group of us stood there. "Now, push-up position!" Azure declared, the group of us having to get back DOWN again, getting into the push-up position. "Here's how this one works! We rotate the jobs here, but first group will do push-ups, second group will provide support: from their back."

I now felt a weight press down against my back, a soft, warm pressure that slowly grew into an almost overwhelming downward force as Azure sat down "All right, Jett! Give me 20! Now!"

 _Why is this so hard! Azure's light enough to throw!_

My eyes shifted across to see that all four of us now had one of the girls on our back as she made us do push-ups. It was quite a strange view to catch glimpses of as we went up and down "Come on, Jett! Hurry up! Diamond's getting ahead of you!" she encouraged as I tried to keep up with my arms burning at the moment. I couldn't even use my semblance to help here with these kinds of exercises, barely managing to keep pushing up and down, until I eventually got out 20.

Surprisingly to me, Jaune had been the one to get done first. "Ummm, Pyrrha, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"I'm fine, Jaune." Pyrrha reassured him, putting herself into the push-up position. "Let's go!"

I got where Jaune was coming from: she might be an astounding athlete, but it still felt like a strange thing to do to a friend.

"See! Was that so hard?" Azure asked me with a smirk, getting me out of my state, before getting herself into the push-up position. "All right, my turn!" Practically as soon as I sat down on her back, she cranked out 20 push-ups in no time at all. "See? You gotta use my regimen to actually whip yourself into shape!"

"I'm in shape, Azure." I responded, shaking my head. "I'm just not your monstrous definition of 'in-shape'."

"So you're not then. You certainly look the part, but you don't have the strength to back it up!" Azure retorted, as the girls actually finished rather faster than we did. "Okay! Next exercise! Yang! Bring the rocks!"

"Oh, right!" Yang replied, walking over from her lawn chair to a cluster of medium-sized rocks. "Here. Ya. Go!" she then lobbed the rocks over to us, landing a few feet short of hitting us.

"Oh, come on!" I complained aloud.

"You wanna fight monsters!? Then you've gotta be able to lift monsters!" Azure declared, now picking up one of the rocks and throwing it to a point across the field. "Now! Each of you gets a rock! You're gonna carry that rock over there, then bring it back here! Then we do the same thing! Sound good? Good! Jett, if you try to float yourself over by shaping the ground, you'll have to do it twice normally!" she then directly threatened me.

The afternoon carried on in pretty much this fashion until it was time for dinner, where I'm convinced Weiss was distributing footage from our training session to the other girls. The entire session reminded me of why I was more heavily reliant on mobility than raw strength when I fight.

"You guys all right?" I asked, currently eating with Jaune, Ren and Diamond, having finally been able to change back into our normal clothes, though with a direct demand from Azure to be ready for the same treatment the next day.

"You know, I feel pain in things I didn't know I had yesterday." Jaune groaned.

"How do they do that so easily?" Diamond attempted to understand. "I mean, I couldn't do all that, and I always trained WITH them!"

"Maybe Azure perfected that method when she wasn't with you guys…" I suggested, trying to ignore the burning in my arms as I tried to eat despite shaking hands. "…I mean, Eunry was struggling to do the stuff as well, she was just doing her damnedest not to let on she was feeling it."

"True enough." Ren considered. "I just hope this stops when the semester starts."

"It will. Their challenge only required that we do what they say until the start of the semester, though I was still surprised that your team went along with it." I admitted. "I mean, you weren't involved the process at all."

"Nora had it planned from the start." Jaune told us. "I didn't think that was the case, but she knew everything that was happening. I'm not sure Pyrrha knew, but I guess she thinks is a good team activity."

"Good for aggravating your teammates, maybe." I responded to this, shaking my head. "I guess we'll just have to get through it until the year starts."

Lo and behold, the next day brought the exact same treatment: a combination of exhausting physical training with near-impossible standards, and the distraction of the girls on both teams wearing tight-fitting skin-tight suits while we were doing so. Luckily, this was the last day we had to do it, but it didn't take away from the burning in my arms at dinner that day, as Azure had seen fit to increase my workload at the slightest slip-up.

 _What did I do to set her off today!?_

Once we were done for the day, Azure and Nora grinned across at us. "Well done! You didn't get quite up to our level, but it was still a start! You can keep those suits, by the way. I was considering taking them back before, but I guess you can keep them. We'll be sure to keep ours! Maybe we could make this a yearly thing…" she suggested, looking across at Nora, who responded with an enthusiastic nod "Dismissed!"

* * *

The next day, which, while technically the last day before the semester started, was, fortunately, counted by our team as a day for recuperation from Azure's training regimen, and thus didn't require that we do anything crazy before we started schooling again. Team JNPR seemed to agree, and now, at lunch, Nora was flinging grapes over to Yang, who was catching them with her mouth.

"Do a trick shot!" Azure encouraged, as I, too drained from the previous days' efforts, didn't provide any real input at all.

As my mind wandered a moment, I found my thoughts settling on wondering if Tukson was all right or not. He should have boarded the flight today and been on his way to Vacuo, if all went well.

However, my thought process was interrupted by the feeling of an object striking me square in the head. Looking down at my otherwise-empty tray, I stared down at a pastry, the jelly from which I could feel dripping down from my head. "Seriously…?" I started, looking up and around trying to figure out who had just thrown that, only to see that, without my knowing it, the entire place had erupted into a cross-fire of food and drinks being lobbed between team RWBY and team JNPR.

In fact, the entire dining room had been thrown into disarray! How could I have possibly missed this happening!?

Most of the tables had been re-arranged into a tower, upon which Nora was lording the position over the rest of the room, which only consisted of Team RWBY, team JNPR, and the rest of my team, Azure bounding up to the top of the tables to stand next to Nora. "Come get us then!" she yelled down in challenge to team RWBY.

Not quite able to process what was going on, I then saw Eunry bound over to the tables, looking as if she were going to help them fend off RWBY. "You know what? I think we should get them back for the last couple days." I suggested to Diamond, who merely nodded, before the two of us bounded over to RWBY's side of the cafeteria.

"Traitors!" Azure declared, though sounding as if she partially expected it.

"Off with their heads!" Nora decreed, before both sides stormed toward each other.

Pointing directly at Azure, I only smirked a bit, knowing my target was already in sight. Picking up a watermelon, I formed the rind into a pair of short-swords, now pelting across the room toward her.

Dodging to the side as Pyrrha attempted to strike me with a baguette, I continued toward Azure, the sounds of battle behind me telling me she had another opponent. As Ren closed in with a pair of leeks, I jumped the surface of the table, sliding across before continuing to move forward, bounding from table to table up toward where Azure was currently waiting, challenging me to get to her.

"Don't think so, Jett." Eunry's voice stated calmly, armed with a melon with a table leg stabbed into the bottom of it. Taking a swing at me as I tried to continue upward, I managed to duck under it, shifting forward to strike her with the improvised fruit weapons, managing to land the first two blows, which only seemed to stagger her for an instant before she was back on the attack, managing to knock me back across one of the tables before skidding into a wall.

 _So THAT's the way they want to play it, then?_

Standing back up, I looked down to see my fruit blades destroyed. Oh well, easy come easy go. Grabbing an upturned bench, I set the flat side against the edge of an overturned table. Smirking a bit, I put a watermelon on the lowered far side, before jumping onto the upper part, slamming that end down before the melon took to the air, smashing into the side of their table fort, knocking a couple of them down from the top.

Giving a two-fingered mock-salute, before lobbing another melon onto the back and flinging it toward Eunry, who smashed it out of the air with her staff, before Azure darted down from the top toward me, now wielding not a weapon-like piece of a food, but just a pie, darting toward me.

 _Too low to send one across._

Now holding the halves of another watermelon in hand, I rushed her as well, ready to match her strike for strike, before a sudden gale kicked up in the room. Evidently Ruby had had enough of this crap, and pelted toward the wall, practically everything in the room headed toward the wall, the two of us included. Once we did hit the wall, I dropped immediately, managing to hurriedly flip up a table, the combined contents of the room smashing into the wall, countless small projectiles impacting the table Azure and I were behind, before quieting down.

"Well… that was certainly interesting." I commented, before suddenly struck in the face by a pie.

 _She still had that thing!?_

"Yep. Punishment was handed out for insubordination, and all is right with the world." She commented with a smirk, before Professor Goodwitch stormed into the room, past Sun and someone else covered in purple that I didn't recognize. The room seeming to reassemble itself from the state we had reduced it to before the professor spoke simply.

"Children, please. Do not play with your food!"

I was honestly expecting something worse than that for destroying the cafeteria.

As I looked around, I took a brief headcount. Okay, looks like-

Wait… where's Yang?

This was my thought before she literally crashed in through the ceiling, landing next to her team and giving an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

 _Okay, now THAT is everyone._

* * *

Not long after leaving the cafeteria, I took another trip out to Vale, ending up headed toward Tukson's.

 _I don't know why I'm coming out here to see an empty store, but I guess it doesn't hurt to confirm he left._

However, upon arrival at the store, I was greeted by the sight of police tape around the door, the store the sight of a crime scene.

 _What the hell could have happened?_


	2. Chapter 2- Rendezvous and Investigations

_What!?_

 _What is this!?_

 _How was this even possible?_

Standing outside of Tukson's store, I could only peek my head into the building, where the police were currently working, examining the interior of the building, and attempting to determine what happened.

 _No, this doesn't make sense. He's supposed to be gone!_

However, as I attempted to walk into the store over the line, a voice called to me "Hold it right there!" turning to see a detective walking over from the counter. "This is an active crime scene. Stay out." He told me, an air of authority in his voice.

"Sorry, sir." I responded, now staying outside the tape. "What happened here? Another break-in?" I asked, trying not to sound too hopeful about the possibility. However, I knew the likelihood of someone, anyone breaking in to try to get books was a very distant possibility.

"Afraid not." The detective then told me, stopping as if he were wondering whether or not to tell me. "You'll hear about it in the news soon enough anyway…" he started "…the owner of the store was killed. The investigation is ongoing."

There it was, right out for me to know.

Tukson was killed.

That doesn't make sense! It would have had to happen in the literally _one_ day from when I gave him the ticket to when I came back!

The detective must have noticed the change in my expression as dread gave way to disbelief at what had happened. "Are you all right kid?"

Shaking my head, I answered "No, sir. No, I'm not. Tukson was a friend of mine." I then told him, shaking my head again, now leaning up against the door, starting to actually shake a little as I started to process what was going on.

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that." The detective told me. "Listen, kid. We're going to get whoever it was that did this to him…" setting a hand to my shoulder in an attempt to console me.

Looking back into the store, I asked quietly, after a moment "How do you know someone killed him, anyway?"

Heaving a sigh, he pointed the other side of the counter "You can't see it from here, but there are signs of combat on the other side of the counter… he definitely didn't go down without a fight."

He wasn't telling me everything, obviously: I could see, once I took a moment, the order to the store, despite combat in the back of the store, along with what appeared to be chunks missing from the table, yet absolutely no sign of debris on the floor.

They wouldn't have swept up a crime scene: whoever did this must have tried to cover their tracks by sorting the place out before leaving.

However, right now, it was clear I wouldn't get anything else out of him, and I didn't want to see anyone else right now, turning on my heel, I stated "I'll be going now. Good day, detective. I hope you find whoever it was that did this…" However, I was unable to conceal the bitterness in my tone, at the moment.

I was absolutely livid, and started down the street, making my way through the town, the charming streets, combined with the people out and about, enjoying life seemed to aggravate my general mood of irritation, now heading back to Beacon, where I could at least find enough space to be alone with my thoughts.

Or so I hoped. However, upon returning, I found the rest of the team, having just been hanging out near the entrance to the academy. The group, upon noticing me, came right over, Diamond having spoken first "Hey, Jett. You're back from Vale sooner than I-"

Azure had actually been the one to notice it first: my expression, deathly serious, and not in the mood for any kind of banter. "Jett?" Azure asked quietly, stepping over to me, her eyes alight with concern as she knew something was wrong.

"Hey, Jett, what's going on?" Diamond now asked, as the three of them followed me, all the way back to the room. Laying back on my bed, I looked up at the three of them, sighing in resignation.

After a moment or two of awkward silence, I stated simply "Tukson's gone." Looking on as they all got a confused expression.

"That's… good, right?" Diamond asked, now unsure why I was in this state. "I mean, he should be in Vacuo by now, right? Maybe he's even on that beach you mentioned."

Heaving a sigh, I shook my head and responded "Not what I meant! I mean he's dead! Someone killed him just before he could leave!" trying not to shout, but raising my voice nonetheless.

"Are you sure?" Azure asked, looking shocked at what I was telling her. "He may have just made the place look like a mess to throw pursuit off…"

I was rather surprised by her hopefulness, but how direct my experience had been kept that from me. "Afraid not. The police were there. There was an actual battle that happened there. They know he's dead." It had fallen to me to shoot down her optimism.

"Oh…" Azure started, sitting down on the side of my bed. "…Jett. I am so sorry this happened." She commented, hugging me now, surprising me with her embrace, though I didn't move at the moment.

"Why? It's not your fault." I told her. "It's whoever did this." I stated with what sounded to an outside listener like calm, but it was a simple observation.

"That's not what I meant, Jett." Azure corrected me, still sitting on the edge of my bed.

"That's a damn shame." Diamond stated.

"Yeah, that's an understatement. We'd just managed to get him a way out, a way to leave the White Fang behind and have a better life for himself…" I started to observe, before it dawned on me immediately.

"That's it!" I started, standing back out of my bed and moving across the floor, needing some room to pace as I revealed my thoughts. "The White Fang! He was deserting them, they have him killed! It HAS to be who it was! I doubt they did it alone: Torchwick and Chroma were working with them before, no reason to think they wouldn't be now!"

"Hey, Jett, as good as I think your idea is…" Eunry started, holding out her hands "…I wouldn't go too far on a single line of thought, at least until we have more information. It may not have been them, and you'd be going after the wrong people!"

Looking over at her, I justified "Then I would be taking down a terrorist organization that is aiding and abetting Torchwick! I may even find Chroma again! Either way, I win!"

"You win?" Diamond asked, sounding confused at my wording "How do you 'win' having to fight a terrorist group with people all across Remnant, and potentially an old friend that knows how you think and how you do things, not to mention someone familiar with your infiltration methods and combat technique running the show!"

Nodding along, I responded "Very good, Diamond, I can see you were paying attention when I told you what I already knew. I get your point: it's a big enemy. Even bigger than we know, because of whoever's in charge of Roman that Chroma mentioned… But I have to know. I have to find out what happened, and take down whoever did this to him!"

Taking a moment to calm down, I then told Diamond "You don't have to come if you don't want to. In fact, none of you do." I then expanded on the idea, looking at the three of them. "This whole thing is my problem. I asked more than I should have when I asked you to help me at the docks. This will likely be even more dangerous if what I'm thinking is true. What do you say?" I finally asked them.

Shaking her head, looking rather disappointed in me, Azure told me "You should have a little more faith in your team, Jett. I'm in. Whatever happens, happens, but we're not letting them get away with this!"

Eunry, taking a moment to consider this, stated "I will help you, but on one condition. Wait." She told me, stepping over, and putting a hand to my shoulder. "You're still in shock from finding out what happened. I don't want you going after them in this state."

As logical as I knew this course of action to be, this suggestion seemed to rub me the wrong way, before I retorted "Eunry, I can't just sit here and wait! Every minute we waste gives them another minute to get away, or to cover it up! We have to go, we have to fight, and we have to-"

However, my statements were cut off by a prompt slap to the face.

"No!" Eunry stated bluntly. "That's exactly what I mean." Lowering her hand now, she looked me dead in the eye, seriousness of her words almost hitting like their own strike. "You need to wait, Jett. If you go rushing after them in a fit of rage you'll do something stupid, and it won't just be you paying the price for it. It will be the rest of us too! Trust me."

"She's right, Jett." Diamond declared supportively, stepping over to Eunry. "If we go out like that and charge wherever we find them guns blazing, not only will we never know what's really happening, but we may even go after the wrong people, into a fight that would end badly for everyone involved. It may not be what you want to hear, but we have do what you'd do in this situation: think about it a moment!"

What I'd do? This _is_ what I would do!

 _Is it? Is it really?_

Stopping a moment to consider this, I wondered what that really meant.

 _Even thinking about it now, at the warehouse I walked right in, but that was because I knew the field: I knew how Chroma would fight, and I knew he wouldn't be expecting me one-on-one. But here, I don't know who we're up against, where they are, or how many there are._

"Fine. I'll try to cool off. But if you're waiting on me to be done grieving a friend or something, then I'll be on the job way before that! We can't afford to wait that long! But I can wait long enough to think about it, and plan out what we're doing… that much I can do. You're right, it's not just me. If you're coming with me, you're in for it too." I surmised, managing to get my head sorted out for the moment.

However, as I went to lie down to think about it, a hand grabbed my wrist, Azure pulling me out of bed. "What do you think you're doing? You've gotta cool off, so let's go do something fun!"

Honestly, I was amazed at how quickly she could revert to her usual bright self after that heavy of a conversation. "Umm… all right." I responded, unable to come up with a coherent response even after a brief pause. "Did you have anything in mind?" I asked in my confusion.

"Of course! What kind of friend would I be if I just dragged you along without any ideas?!" Azure reassured me, as the four of us left the room. "We were just about to do something before we saw you come back!" she informed me, now apparently going to do whatever it was that was.

Bringing me out to the part of the entrance they had been at, I noticed a large bag that Azure was starting to drag out from behind a tree. "What exactly is that?" I asked, confused by what she had in mind.

"Have you ever made fireworks before?" Azure asked me curiously.

"No, I never considered it before. The compounds would be something I'd have to go out of my way to get. I can shape things, I can't just conjure them out of thin air." I told her, stepping over to the bag, my curiosity slightly piqued by her telling me this.

"Oh, good! Then this ought to be fun!" Azure responded, opening the bag to show me all manner of powder containers, some of them in different colours and marked with different compounds. "I'm just gonna go ahead and assume you're familiar with chemistry." She then stated, sounding quite certain of herself.

"Of course." I answered. "I was hoping to figure out how far I can go with my semblance, but I haven't found a use for the information yet." Now looking over the vials. "When did you guys learn about this sort of thing?" I asked them curiously.

"Signal." Azure told me. "I was trying to figure out how to make better bullets for my weapons, though I never got much better than high-explosive rounds. Those are fun though!"

"Yeah, why don't you tell him about the time you singed your eyebrows off then? Then you had to make Eunry draw-" Diamond started, before getting Azure's hand over his mouth.

"Hey, hey, let's not go bringing up any more dumb stories, Diamond! I'm sure you wouldn't want me telling him what I know about you, right?" She then threatened, her smile clashing with the red currently in her cheeks.

The response that came out of Diamond was muffled by Azure's hand, before she removed it. "Yeah, I get the point." He then commented, shaking his head. "It didn't look that bad though, don't know why you're so embarrassed about it." Now turning to me, he continued "She taught us a bit about it and we started to do pyrotechnics whenever we actually wanted to. So, if you could bring us to your little shop area, we can do this in private."

Heaving a sigh, I then responded "Just… don't blow anything up, all right? I don't want my friends, not to mention my workshop, scattered across the landscape. I'll have to have a room vented though, you don't want to know what happens with explosions in a pressurized area."

Now, when our group passed through the entrance to my workshop, I closed the entrance behind me, the group now stepping into the shop itself, haphazard construction of the main room now quite shabby compared to the considered proportions of the large room behind it, lined in large shaped stone blocks to create a perfectly flat floor and relatively aesthetic appearance, despite the featureless surface.

Inside this large room was: a half-complete bullhead.

"Umm, Jett?" Eunry started, looking over the skeletal airframe of the craft, practically just the metal frame and the engines installed currently. "When did you start building this?"

"Just after that night at the docks." I explained to her. "I managed to analyze and replicate the engine I recovered relatively quickly, but the one on the left is the one I salvaged – after I repaired it, of course. It's not airworthy yet. I need a lot more time to get it finished in order to make it actually work. So, why are we making the fireworks, anyway? Special occasion, or a 'because I feel like it' kind of thing?"

Diamond, shaking his head, commented "Are you just that guy that likes to one-up everything other people do?" stepping past the incomplete aircraft.

"Hey, it wasn't my idea to bring this little pyro meeting to my place." I responded, looking over at Azure. "I'm learning engineering, but I've been working off as much as I can of what stayed in my mind of the interior of one of those. Though it's not 100% the original design, since I don't actually have their blueprints." Gesturing over to one of the walls, which had a great many diagrams of different pieces of a bullhead.

"Besides." I started "This isn't where I planned to do this. Over there." I gestured, pointing to a smaller room off from the side of the hangar with similar aesthetic. Walking in, I showed the group that the room was, at the moment, empty for a single picture: that of an Atlesian Knight, the current 130 model.

"You don't plan on building one of those, do you?" Diamond now asked incredulously, looking at the picture.

"Of course not!" I retorted, now checking the small venting ports near the ceiling. "I plan on building a good half-dozen knights! Why would I figure out how to build one if I didn't plan on building more?"

"There's _got to_ be some kind of legal thing there." Eunry commented, shaking her head.

"I'm sure there is, but the battlefield doesn't allow for minor details like that to stop me!" I declared, before inviting Azure to set her bag on the table in the middle of the room. "Now, as I asked, what's the occasion for fireworks?"

"I'm not sure you've heard, but there's a dance coming up in a little while. We just wanted to come up with something to help make the evening more special, you know?" Azure stated, looking over the powders currently arranged on the table, along with their prospective casings.

"A dance?" I asked, shaking my head a bit "Seems like a waste of time to me, but not really my role to say. So…" I then started, stepping over to the end of the table "Shall we get to work?"

* * *

After spending the rest of the day going between tinkering with fireworks and ensuring the team didn't blow up my workshop, we returned to our room and got ready for the next day's classes. "Hey, guys?" I asked, now back in the room and ready to go to sleep "After class tomorrow, would you mind coming with me into Vale? I want to look into what happened to Tukson, and I have a couple of ideas where to look."

Eunry was the first to answer "See? Even just a diverting yourself for the day let you get a bit of perspective. If you really want to look into it, I'll go. Besides, there are a couple things I need to pick up in Vale."

"Yeah, sounds good…" Diamond stated with a yawn, before slipping off to sleep.

"Yeah, I'm in. If we're doing something dangerous, we've gotta sleep well. Good night, Jett." Azure then finished with a yawn.

Finally laying down after a trying day, I felt the strength leave my limbs shortly after getting into bed, and fell asleep despite the thoughts of what I was going to do nagging at me.

* * *

The next day, classes passed in what felt like a blur, all I recalled was what was written on the board, which I scribbled into my book as if simply taking dictation, none of my mind actually in the lessons. As soon as class was over, I made my way back to the room, noticing that team RWBY was headed back to theirs in somewhat of a hurry as well.

 _Well, that's something. Every time we do things that take us parallel to them, something always happens! Sure, we end up finding what we're looking for, but things always get screwed-up all the same!_

However, once the four of us were back in our room, I pondered a moment:

 _Perhaps I should ask what they're up to… we could help each other out? Scratch that, I doubt they'll be looking into what happened to Tukson. They must have their own problems._

"So, boss, what's the plan?" Azure asked curiously, as the four of us were now in battle attire.

"I'm going back to the warehouse Roman had been hiding out in. I _know_ he was involved in this somehow. Tukson was working for him before he left the White Fang. That seems like the most obvious place to check first." I reported to them. "Do the rest of you have any suggestions?"

"Eunry and I are going to the police." Diamond informed me. "My dad has some pull in the Vale PD, so I may be able to find out if they know anything about it. Eunry seems like the best one to help me speak to them about it."

Nodding to him, Eunry agreed "Very well, we'll go there after I'm done my business in Vale, and you and Azure will go to the warehouse to see what you can find."

"No." I informed them. "I'm going to the warehouse alone. No offence, Azure, but you're not exactly the most subtle of individuals. This is going to be a stealth mission."

"Seriously? You ask for our help in going to Vale, then you say we can't come with you!? That's stupid!" Azure responded, shaking her head. "I can be plenty subtle!"

"Perhaps you're referring to when you sneak peeks at my homework over my shoulder? No, not really." I commented in response, pointing at her a moment "You're not the one going on this mission. You'll be finding a vantage point and remaining at the ready to jump in in case things get hairy. You'll be coming with me, just not for the infiltration part."

"So I've gotta camp out front and wait for things to go bad? Well, I guess you're better prepared than I thought! I thought you were gonna make me go to the library or something!" Azure admitted, giving an exaggerated shrug.

"Nope. I know something's going to mess up tonight, but I don't know what. So I need someone to have my back, right? You two…" I then gestured to Eunry and Diamond "…try not to make this a date and come help us if we call!"

"What? What makes you think it's a date?" Diamond asked, pretending not to understand me.

"Just be ready if we call, all right?" I then requested, now going over to the door of the room, "Also, if you run into any members of Team RWBY out tonight, make sure to keep an eye on them, things always seem to get more complicated when they're involved."

At this, we left the campus, making our way back into Vale. This trip seemed to get easier every time I did it, despite having to overcome a fair distance to be able to get back here.

"All right, we have a bit of time before I want to go anywhere near that warehouse." I informed Azure, as we continued down the street not long after Eunry and Diamond went to go find out whatever they could. "I want to wait until it gets dark. At least darker than this." I told her, before asking "So what did you want to do while we wait?"

"Well, nothing." Azure stated. At this, I was about to ask her what she actually wanted, as I assumed she was just trying to get me to say something I wanted to do. "Also, not just being coy." She told me now. "I seriously mean that, nothing."

Now wearing a concerned expression, she told me "You know, Jett, with everything that's been going on, I've noticed none of us have really stopped to do, well, nothing. There are some times when that's necessary. Ever since we ran into Chroma, you've been running non-stop doing all this stuff, thief stuff and then stopping thief stuff. Now you're on to 'solving a murder' stuff, and never had a real break in between. Especially since… well, I saw your latest project."

Turning to look at her worried look, I nodded along "I get that. I mean, I've been going pretty much from one crisis to the next, just trying to take everything in stride, or I thought I might trip and never get back up. I've never even thought to take the time to sit back a minute and unwind. Even our team's 'unwinding' activities are exciting!"

"I know!" Azure responded, smirking a bit, as she was at least partially responsible for a lot of those activities. "That's why I wanted to help you relax for a bit, if we have the time before we go there. Let's go! It's time for a normal day in Vale without thinking about all that stuff!"

There it is: that child-like joy that seemed to define Azure's actions most of the time. It reminded me of living back home, before I started training with Stahl, and had to think about fighting the grimm, and about what might happen were a sudden attack to hit our town again.

"All right then, what's first?" I asked her, deciding to let the Vale native take the lead.

"First off, we'll go on a walk through town to the park, going through the square. I don't think you saw the main square last time we were in the main part of town! Then we'll go get some coffee over at the café by the park! I know you're not the biggest fan of coffee but there'll be other stuff!" she then declared, grabbing my wrist and guiding me in the right direction.

As the two of us went down the streets, I could feel a calm sense of reassurance coming over me as we walked, Azure's presence next to me telling me that even if things went wrong tonight, it wouldn't really matter, because everything would somehow work out anyway. It was a feeling foreign to me, so I had no idea how to actually process it at the moment, so remained somewhat quiet during the walk.

Now, as the two of us started to pass through the center square, I spotted something in the square, looking to be some kind of demonstration: Atlesian Knight 130s being kicked over by different-looking robots while some Atlesian official went over the advantages offered by the less aesthetic units. For him, making them less menacing took something away from them.

"Hmm. Not bad, though." I commented, looking over the units. "Maybe I'll have to borrow one at some point later." I then stated before snapping a picture from this distance.

"Jett. No." Azure responded, her hand on her forehead. "No stealing Atlas military units."

"Nothing like that, Azure! It's just that, well, judging by our luck, we'll find one or two wrecked units at some point." I then suggested, before the official announced the Atlesian Paladin, some kind of piloted mech that they didn't have for display in Vale. "Scratch that. I just found what I want for my birthday!" I then told her, getting another shot with my scroll before turning back to her. "I've seen all I needed. Lead on!"

As the two of us continued, I found myself sneaking glances over my shoulder at my shorter teammate: her hair seemed to bounce slightly with each step, short though it was, and her gaze firmly on the sidewalk ahead of us, the sun glinting slightly from her aqua-blue eyes. I hadn't noticed I was staring until I nearly tripped on a passer-by.

"Hey, watch it!" the grey-haired guy responded, sounding aggravated.

"Apologies." I told him, bowing slightly "I wasn't watching where I was going!"

"Well, keep your eyes on the sidewalk instead of on your girlfriend, and maybe that won't happen!" the green-haired girl next to him retorted.

"I'm sorry, I…" I had started, before realizing what the girl just implied. "…that's not it at all!" I responded, feeling my face getting hot before turning back toward the sidewalk, now resuming to walk with Azure. "The nerve of some people." I muttered to myself as we continued.

However, as we did so, Azure giggled "Well, that's a new state for you: flustered. Never thought I'd see it!" though I thought I noticed her cheeks were redder than before while we continued walking.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I stated, the two of us continuing until we finally reached the café.

"So, Azure, you told me students at Signal forged their own weapons?" I asked her curiously.

"Yep! Tempest Lance is the best!" Azure responded with a smile. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I was curious the process you used to build it." I informed her, "I don't typically use tools, considering my semblance."

"Well, the tools we got for building were Signal's, but you've seen my maintenance kit." Azure told me, "I'm more curious how you do that. My semblance feels like the water just bubbles up from above my skin and goes where I need it to." She described before asking, her eyes aglow with curiosity, "What does it feel like when you use yours?"

"My semblance?" I confirmed with her before responding "Well, my semblance feels as if – well, I can feel the object in my hand. Or in the case of shifting the ground, I can feel the whole area resonating with me." I told her, my hand now at my chin as I attempted to describe how it felt to use my semblance. "I can feel the entire thing as if it were in my hand, and then, forming an image in my mind of what I want it to be, I change it to become the image in my mind. But there's something else I found out recently…" I started to tell her, picking up the napkin off of the table, I held the thing flat in my palm, before my hand started to glow slightly, the napkin actually shrinking in my hand. It seemed to be sparking slightly, before I lobbed the napkin into the air, where it began to come down like a dead leaf, now clear the _napkin_ had been glowing, not my hand, before prodding it with the end of my fork, the paper now crackling with blue sparks, seeming to explode into tiny pieces of charred paper.

"Wh-what was that!?" Azure asked in surprise, having been watching the entire time trying to figure out what I was doing.

"It's the equivalent of squeezing with my aura." I told her. "It can actually slightly shrink the object, but doing so pushes part of my aura into the object as I force it to get smaller. At that point, it becomes unstable as the amount of energy exceeds what the object should be able to hold. So once it comes into contact with something, the energy dissipates, violently as you can see."

"So you can make things explode?" Azure asked, seeming to summarize where her thought process went with my demonstration.

"Well, if that helps you understand it better, yes. It makes small objects that explode on contact. I've yet to figure out a way to actually apply it, though. Anything I make like that would have a very short combat lifespan." I told her, continuing to think.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out." Azure told me, in an obvious attempt to be reassuring. Watching her turn one of the charred pieces in her hand, I hadn't noticed that we had gotten closer, before almost bumping her head. Realizing at this point, I backed up, and considered what kind of object would be usable in combat were it to explode on contact.

* * *

Not long after we left the café, and took a nice walk around the park, the two of us now wound up at the warehouse Roman used as a base before now, looking over my shoulder to see Azure atop another building nearby, before turning my head back toward the warehouse, moving quickly and jumping from surface to surface along the side of the building: forklift, pipe, edge, roof. Now on the roof, I stepped quietly over to the side of the building, putting a small hole in the ceiling and looking into the building.

Inside was row upon row of dust containers, though it was clearly not as many as there had been during the 'phantom' period.

 _He must have started moving the dust out of the building by now… but there don't seem to be any white fang in the building. Where is everyone?_

I was able to hear the noise of some manner of announcer coming from one or two buildings over. Getting an idea of what was going on, I looked over the positions to find the nearest drop from the ceiling, closing the eye-hole, and forming another hole in the ceiling over the catwalk, dropping from the ceiling before re-sealing the hole.

 _Nobody here. Good. Then I can 'liberate' their stolen dust crates…_

Jumping from section to section, I landed next to the racks of dust crates, I started to get an idea of how to get these crates out, before the sound of gunshots could be heard from the next building over.

 _Not good…_

Starting toward the entrance of the building, no crate in hand, I then heard a resounding crash from the same building, moving through the door to see: one of those paladin mechs from the demonstration now charging after two figures, too far for me to recognize at the moment in the dark.

 _Doesn't matter though. We've got to stop that mech! Hopefully intact enough to get a good look at._

As I started to move toward the road to pursue the rapidly-vanishing mech, however, a shot rang out from behind me, striking my shoulder and sending me skidding a few feet. Turning to see the source, I now saw several of the Atlesian Knights I had spotted in the square earlier, and at the center of the largest group of them: Chroma, smirking at me smugly. "Going so soon, Jett? I thought we'd stay here and chat, one criminal to another, or were you just taking a tour of our property?"

"What the hell is going on here, Chroma!?" I demanded angrily. "Not only are you armed with Atlesian military tech, but killing people!? I would have thought you'd be better than that!"

"Oh, come on, Jett, spare me the lecture, please!" Chroma retorted in irritation. "You shouldn't have been helping traitors! That guy got what was coming to him!"

 _So Chroma DID help have Tukson killed!_

Tightly clenching my fists, I shouted "Are you kidding me?! He didn't want to be any part of it anymore!" Though, as it was clear I wasn't going to get anywhere on that front, I started "But, getting back to the now…", now starting to mentally count how many knights there were here.

 _10\. Should be a challenge, especially if I have to fight Chroma at the same time._

"…what's with the mechs, Chroma? Atlas is just starting to introduce them!" I demanded again.

"Jealous much?" Chroma asked with a smirk, well aware of my penchant for technology. "You needn't worry where we're getting these. We have more than enough. Had you stayed on, we might have even given you one. Ah, who am I kidding? We were going to set you up at the docks if you were still with us. Some people just outlive their usefulness, don't you think?"

 _Who was this? How did Chroma become so damned inhuman?_

"I don't know who poisoned your mind like this, but it has to stop, Chroma! You're working with terrorists! You're even armed with stolen military tech!" I told him, before taking note of another detail. "Though I notice you never did replace your weapons." Seeing him armed with a conventional rifle.

"Yeah. You enjoying those?" Chroma asked angrily. "But that doesn't matter now. Because I notice you're without that pointy stick you were using last time. Didn't think enough of us to come armed?"

The mechs still surrounding me, I smirked a bit. "I guess learning isn't a habit you maintained, eh, Chroma? You should have moved the dust already, as soon as I turned on you guys, the location was a liability!" a small mechanical whirring able to be heard under my coat.

"Oh, I learned, Jett." He responded, trying not to act like I had any advantage on him. "We've already moved most of it to the new place out south-… heh, you almost got me with that one, Jett. Almost. Kill him." He directed to the knights, taking aim himself just before a shot sent him staggering back, two more downing the nearest mech as I jumped behind the knight to my immediate left, Stormbringers sending a lightning arc through every knight in my immediate vicinity, stunning them a moment.

Just before the furthest was able to fire, a weapon's point came through the faceplate, before retracting back through its head, Azure standing behind it as it fell. "Meh, these things aren't so tough." She commented, shaking her head at it.

Rushing over to her before sending another arc of lightning at the knights, I stood back-to-back with her a moment as some of the white fang who had been gone started to come back, joined by the knights from before. "So, you wanna take the ones on the left, or the right?" Azure asked me as I got there.

"Don't be dumb." I responded. "If it were just the mechs, I'd agree, but there's too many of them here for just us. Did you call them?" I asked, shaping the ground to form a circular concrete barrier around the two of us at the moment.

"Yep! As soon as I heard the gunshots." Azure told me cheerfully "So, how _are_ we getting out of this one, boss?"

"Stall. Big stall." I commented, before I could hear Chroma shouting at us from the other side of the barrier.

"Come on out you cowards! Come fight me like a man, Jett!"

Picking up a piece of the concrete, I smiled slightly as I formed it into a small curved sword, concealing it quietly before readying my weapons. "You ready?" I asked Azure, smiling just a bit.

"Let's do it." She responded, as the sound of gunfire continued to grind down the barrier. Feeling the ground and barrier around me, I sent out the barrier out in a wave, the wave knocking back any of the enemies immediately around us. The two of us now charging at the white fang and mechs on either extreme side, a wave of lightning stunning the group momentarily before I punched forward, a wave of wind coming from my hand, knocking several of them back before I bounded over to Azure, the two of us passing each other as I knocked back one of the thugs that had been about to shoot Azure.

Turning on the spot to the next closest thug, I used my next gauntlet to blast him back as well. Shifting back until I was back-to-back with Azure, just in time to see Chroma get struck by a water surge, sending him back into a nearby car. "Nice one!" I complimented, before a shot from one of the guns knocked Azure's weapon out of her hand. "Hang on!" I stated, before firing my wind blast at the ground, knocking the two of us over toward her fallen weapon, rolling for our landing as Azure grabbed her weapon off the ground, opening fire on the now-more-distant opponents.

As the group continued to advance on us, I ducked behind the car near the two of us, the hostiles continued advancing, shots ringing out to keep us suppressed, while I drew the curved blade from its concealed position. "We need to scatter them a moment." Azure told me seriously, holding her closed scroll, as she must have found something out a second ago.

"Got you covered. We just need to stop them a second. Water the floor?" I responded, the curved blade starting to shrink slightly in my hand, my aura forcing them to a smaller state, glowing dark blue and issuing sparks of black aura "This is going to be loud." I commented. That napkin had made a nice noise for its side. This was not only thicker, but much longer and a much denser material.

 _Just have to stop them first._

Coming up from behind the car as Chroma got close to it, with the ground now covered in water, I managed to avoid the first shot made at us, swinging at him to hit nothing but air with the blade, a small wave of energy coming from the weapon that was radiating my aura at the moment, slightly pushing Chroma back toward the rest of his 'friends', before I jumped back, firing the arc lightning from my off-hand weapon at the wet ground before landing on the car.

With the group of them momentarily immobilized by the shock that went across the entire puddle that engulfed the whole of the enemy group, I threw the blade at Chroma now, a strangely nervous expression coming over him, though slightly relieved when the blade only passed over his shoulder.

Right up until the sound from behind him.

As soon as the glowing weapon hit the concrete, there was the immediate sight of crackling energy as the ground under it gave way with a resounding crack, the explosion underwhelming compared to the shock-wave that sent not only them, but myself and Azure flying back in every direction.

Winding up across the road from where I had been, I looked up to see a crowd of knights and thugs getting back up from where they had been. The shock-wave hadn't been as powerful as I had first thought, rather more flashy than actually consequential.

Chroma shaking his head as he stood back up, looking down at his sparking rifle before throwing it to the ground in disgust. "Got a new toy, do you Jett!?" I could barely hear him shout over the ringing in my ears.

"You could say that!" I shouted back, my hearing only starting to come back slowly, just in time to hear gunshots coming from the direction headed back to the city, a glance enough to tell Diamond and Eunry were opening fire on the scattered enemies, the sound of sirens able to be heard from behind them.

 _Good, they got here. Wait, sirens?_

Sending another arc of lightning at Chroma, I watched as some of the white fang began to actually retreat, the knights continued to fight defiantly until each and every one had been destroyed. Chroma now rushing out of the area once he was the one at a disadvantage.

I wasn't just about to let him get away again!

Sprinting off after him, I saw the bullhead he was moving toward, firing the Stormbringers in an attempt to take down the aircraft. Arc lightning impacting the side of the craft. However, it only seemed to knock it to the side slightly, before Chroma jumped in from the side, turning around as the bullhead took off, his expression catching me by surprise: fear.

 _He was scared of me? What a shame._

Taking another couple shots in an effort to slow the craft down, I groaned angrily as the aircraft took off, headed to another part of the city. "Damn it!" I shouted, striking the ground below me before Azure rushed over to where I was.

"Come on, Jett. Let's get going!" Azure told me, now grabbing me by the wrist.

"Yeah, just give me a moment." I responded, rushing over to one of the fallen knights, briefly removing its head and chest casing, before extracting any of the intact computer systems from inside the knight, bagging them and taking off.

"Isn't that stealing?" Diamond asked, confused.

"Not stealing. It's salvaging!" I retorted, now taking off before the police showed up to round up the white fang that didn't get away in time. "Besides, they were stolen in the first place!"

As the group of us now moved through Vale, we started to tell each other what we found out. "South? That's hardly specific." Diamond commented, shaking his head.

"True, but that does give us somewhere to start when it comes time to go looking for them. Did you get a look and who was being chased by the mech?" I asked them, curious what route that fight actually took.

"I saw someone from Team RWBY going after that thing - Weiss. Not sure if their whole team got there, but I doubt that thing's intact enough to salvage. The police will be there shortly as well." Eunry informed us at this point.

One sideways glance on the way out had told me there was enough left for the police for them to find the contents of the warehouse, so that much was done for me, but now still came the question of finding Chroma in this southern base and capturing him, stopping him from hurting anyone else.

"So… head home?" Azure asked curiously.

"I think we've done enough for one night. Besides, my ears are still ringing a little from that shock-wave." I admitted, rubbing my ears in an attempt to stop the feeling.

"Actually, just one thing." I then added before getting my scroll. Placing a single call, I heard Ruby on the line answer.

"Hey, Jett. What's up?" She asked me, sounding a little out of breath.

"Oh, you know, the usual. Walking around, doing stuff, fighting bad guys. You?" I told her casually, managing to calm down enough in the time since the fight to be convincing at it.

"Heh, same." She told me. "What happened to you?"

"White fang. Atlesian Knights. You?"

"Giant robot. Want to talk about it later?"

"Sounds like a plan. Usual meeting time?"

"Okay! With the team right now, so gotta go, bye!" the girl chimed in her usual cheery tone before hanging up.

"'Usual meeting time'?" Azure asked, looking at me with suspicion.

"Oh, that?" I asked her, rubbing the back of my head "Yeah, we normally get together to work on weapon designs and upgrades and what-not. She's quite good at it and I like having someone to talk shop with. It's pretty much all weapon-talk though." I informed her now.

"I see." Azure replied with a smile, not letting on at all if there was something wrong with this idea.

"Speaking of weapons." Diamond started. "I notice you only brought the Stormbringers. any reason you didn't bring any of your main weapons?"

"Oh, that." I stated. "I needed to be lightly armed in order to infiltrate effectively, especially if Chroma or Roman knew I'd be coming. I was more than confident enough with Azure with me that I wouldn't need anything of my heavy equipment for this investigation. Didn't suspect there would be so many knights, though. Oh well."

"Anyway! Now that that's cleared up, let's head back! Sounded like they didn't need any help!" I decided, before the four of us went back to Beacon, the only thing to show for tonight pretty much the robot brain in my bag.

 _There'll be plenty of time for further investigation tomorrow._


End file.
